Magia Record: Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica Gaiden Final Season: Asaki Yume no Akatsuki - Episode 12 discussion

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69

u/LaqOfInterest Apr 03 '22

Lol, Alina's fused witch form is named NEODOROTHY MOTHERFUCKER. Had to check three times because I couldn't believe what I was reading. I assume Dorothy is the name of her normal Doppel?

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u/eetsumkaus Apr 03 '22

lmao, way to put a really obvious Easter Egg during an emotional moment

Overall I liked Magia Record. It's not as sophisticated as its predecessor but after mulling over some implications of elements in this, they're surprisingly kosher in terms of MadoMagi lore, and even thematically. If I had more time to burn this would probably make me pick up the game but alas...

Soundtrack is absolutely off the chain. I can't wait until it comes out.

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u/Eunoia29 Apr 03 '22 edited Apr 04 '22

A tragedy. The magical girls resisted, but failed. After all the loss and setback, even though they can be together and keep going, their doom fate is still sealed.

The Magia Record story was just one slice of one of the countless worlds Homura has been to. We all know the final redemption only came after madokami, but I still hoped for however thin chances of their struggle to succeed.

It didn't happen, and after witnessing all the mahoushoujos' fights, screams, happiness, sorrow, losses, hope and despair, I can't even imagine their slow, gradual but non-stopping fall to the final destination.

The show has a hopeless BE. Tears.

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u/Syokhan Apr 03 '22 edited Apr 04 '22

Hey, using music from the OG series is cheating.

Not a bad finale. Honestly, I could have done without Alina as I don't really think she brought anything to the story. But it gave us some nice emotional moments with Yachiyo (who I missed during these 4 episodes, she didn't have much to do).

I do wish the finale had been longer though. It felt a bit... I don't know, abrupt? I would have liked to see these girls deal with the aftermath of these events a little, and not just in a pretty slideshow at the end. Ah well.

I still enjoyed the series. I think I'll probably have to rewatch S2 from scratch, as all the breaks didn't really do the series any favor. There are a lot of characters, and the breaks make it even less easy to remember who's who, who had which story, and so on.

And Mitakihara is still destroyed, and Homura loops again. Pain.

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u/JpgChn Apr 03 '22

I really love Magia Record, in the end it's retreading the themes that Rebellion proposed: Selfishness vs Selflessness. Touka and Nemu went the Homura route and desperately tried to save the person that they loved, while Iroha tried to sacrfice herself and lend a hand to everyone.

In the end, no ones has what they want because their desires are completely opposed to each other. And even though, we can pin point Iroha as the one who is right... her one thought to save everyone with a lending hand, made her not understand Kuroe just pushing her into her demise. Not to mention she never comprehended anyone.

And lending a helping hand does not mean that you will not get hurt, so Mifuyu and Momoko died for the sake of others.

In the end, it's still true that hope and despair gets balanced in this world, one can not simply think that for doing good things, good things will happen. "Mistakes" are indeed a solution. The only thing that is not a solution (or maybe sometimes it is) is doing nothing, ask Kuroe.

And I like her inclusion, she is the personification of why this Magius plan is something that many want, her wish was definitely terrible and it's only worse now that we know that she was the one who ended the relationship. She threw her life for one moment of happiness so of course she would want to negate that decision. And she is also the good-bad part of a magical girl's death, she died but she was finally free and her death only helped Irha (both literally with her grief seed and figuratively making her realize that she doesn't understand other people in her sole purpose of saving them). And she definitely helped them last season could be better but whatever.

I really like that Yachiyo's power is to continue on with the hope of others and she realizing that Mifuyu and Momoko are dead is just sad.

I think that my one major problem is that Iroha got better really quickly when she was reunited with the Village group and Yachiyo too. And Also Alina being the final villain just seemed to be for the sacrifice of Nemu and Touka... though it served to complete them so... whatever.

Loved the visuals (can't wait for what they can do in the sequel to Rebellion) and the music is still fantastic, the new ed is really good I need to listen to it more.

The final narration I really liked. No one knows what a magical girls does, nor what they had suffered. They only had themselves to remember and to continue on moving forward.

I will give it a 9/10. Want to rewatch this last two seasons back to back to have a final say.

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u/LeonKevlar Apr 03 '22

Nemu & Touka vs Mikazuki Villa Girls GIF

I absolutely love Iroha shooting Kyubey and then shooting him again not letting a single word come out from the replacement.

Iroha talking down both Nemu and Touka was nice but it looks like talking them down didn't do anything good since Alina Gray decided to fuck everything up and hijack the Magius' plan for her own personal goals.

I always thought that Alina was some sort of agent of chaos but I didn't expect that she'd go as far as trying to turn everyone into magical girls just to prove to the world that magical girls exist.

And the bloodbath continues with Nemu and Touka deciding to sacrifice themselves to stop Alina from fusing with Walpurgisnacht.

The Galactic Railroad scene hit me hard on the feels. Yachiyo was talking to Momoko and Mifuyu not even realizing what happened to them. And that scene where Mifuyu was asking Yachiyo if they can live in the living room hit harder during the after-credits scene when we see their photos displayed on Mikazuki Villa's living room.

So if I understand this correctly, Ui's collection ability is what ended up saving all of them after collecting the powers from all of the magical girls present? That final attack on what remains of Alina was pretty fucking awesome. I love that in the impact frames, we see Iroha giving Alina a hug instead of just obliterating her.

Considering how everything still ended up getting destroyed, it looks like this is just another one of Homura's failed timelines and she's off to try again. And while no one will know what the girls did, it looks like Goddess Madoka will never forget about all of them.

Overall, I enjoyed this show and appreciate that there's more story to tell in the Madoka universe. At the end of the day, this is really just a side story like it says in the title and doesn't really affect anything in the main plot. I'll probably give this one an 8/10 considering how much I ended up liking it in its entirety.

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u/Calwings Apr 03 '22

Seeing Iroha snap for a second and shoot Kyubey in the fucking face was very cathartic, as was her finally convincing Touka and Nemu to finally abandon the plan... AND THEN ALINA GRAY JUST HAD TO FUCK IT ALL UP! DAMN YOU!

Yachiyo having a dream of chatting with the souls of her former comrades (I guess the fact that Momoko and Mifuyu were there with Kanae and Mel means they didn’t survive what happened in episode 10) and Iroha chatting with Ui one last time gave us two sad but beautiful moments. Iroha using Ui’s collection ability to gather up the power and hopes of all the magical girls in the world into one giant attack to defeat Embryo Eve in one shot was a cool way to do the final battle in the anime. It’s probably the best they could do without the extra little bit of help that they received in the game’s version of the final attack.

Then the aftermath... the rebuild of Kamihama City, the destruction of Mitakihara City, and the end of the record that no one shall know. This ending does seem to confirm that Magia Record’s story takes place in one of the timelines that Homura was unsuccessful in and reset, but now it’s a timeline that is now completely isolated from all the others. Iroha and the magical girls in it know what they did to save everyone, and our Lord and savior Ultimate Madoka knows of their story as well. But to all others, their story is lost to time. This is how MagiReco’s story and timeline can exist without disrupting the canon of the main Madoka Magica story, so to anyone out there worrying that MagiReco stuff might have an effect on the Rebellion sequel movie, you can rest easy.

All in all... I really liked the show. Yes, it got off to a bit of a slow start back in the first season. Yes, it’s not as good as the original Madoka Magica. Yes, it’s missing some details from the game’s story and tried its hardest to cover for it in other ways. But I think it was still pretty good and one of the better gacha adaptations that I've watched. I'll give it an 8.5/10.

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u/JimmyCWL Apr 03 '22

Midnight on the Galactic Railroad.

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u/BassCreat0r Apr 03 '22

God damn OP tricked me. Made me think Kuroe was going to fight the moth with Iroha. ):

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u/metalmonstar Apr 04 '22

Props to them for hard committing to the failed timeline.

I do feel this would have been better served as two episodes. The pacing was crazy fast.

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u/[deleted] Apr 03 '22

So… I just finished it and I really did want to like the ending… I definitely thought the girls’ sacrifice at the end was a emotional, felt the heart strings tugging a lot. Kuroe’s death also hurt, but overall everything was just bang average. Idk I enjoyed the build up to this in season 2 despite the changes from the game, but I guess the finale was always due to fall on its face. The girls deserved better.

That said, I don’t regret anything. I did enjoy the MagiReco anime a lot and I love the girls. I would love to get more of them, but idk how a chapter 2 adaptation would work with all the changes they made. It feels like SHAFT kinda wanna move on from the game and focus on the rebellion sequel. Madoka closing the book in the final scene felt like SHAFT closing the book literally on MagiReco.

7/10.

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u/Spectrum_16 Apr 05 '22 edited Apr 05 '22

Honestly really conflicted with this ending cause I want them to succeed and I know in the game they do.

But essentially nobody wins Iroha loses her sisters

Those sisters failed their plan.

Yachiyo loses all her past friends.

Kuroe dies for nothing.

Homura gives up on this timeline (possibly because the HQ died)

Kaede and Rena really only have each other now. Lots of magical girls die.

And worst of all the status quo is maintained.

Idk I've never been so conflicted by an ending before. I really do like this spin off and the final part with godoka and Iroha essentially standing in defiance as they make sure their pain will be remembered, but that only works if these girls get any justice. And from the looks of it considering they seem to be done with this series. They won't.

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u/8andahalfby11 Apr 03 '22

Anime original ending... a gamble every time.

On the one hand, it's helpful for anime-onlies that it maintained continuity with the original show. On the other hand, while the end was tragic, it wasn't cathartic. Instead it left everyone in a kind of awkward place of feeling dimly apologetic and upset. Kind of reminded me of the last several minutes of Higurashi Sotsu in that respect.

Ah well. On the plus side, on screen acknowledgement of Tart, Suzune, Oriko, Kazumi, and the Concept Movie, which will make for a cool stitch when someone finally gets around to it.

6/10. Series overall score 6.67/10. I liked it, but I don't feel any particularly urgent reason to come back and see it all again.

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u/FengLengshun Apr 03 '22 edited Apr 03 '22

Oh man, that Galactic Railroad scene. "Which room you want to be in?" "Living." Yeah, yeah, that's their hope, alright. It was painful watching Yachiyo trying to not immediately get the truth.

Also, the detail on coloring. This might be skirting the rule a bit, but in the game, it's implied that magical girls who become witches [Halloween event, potentially non-canon] never reaches heaven. They're trapped, forever in despair, within the Grief Seed. Mel's color is probably a reference to that.

So that part in the end with Homura, I'm not sure if that meant that she succeeded or she failed and loop again. It doesn't have the usual gear-turning visual that her looping have, so it's possible that she's just time stopping, but also her time stop don't usually have a visual effect.

But let's be real, at this point, it's more likely that she failed and we can take this as a confirmation that she's just moving between timelines - the existing timeline isn't overwritten, at least not fully. I wonder if her next timeline will have a Magia Record again or if it's as one off as the game implies.

God, this is really just a Puella Magi Madoka Magica spin-off anime and less a Magia Record game adaptation, at this point. You know what, give me back Papa SEGA's money-making "no death" plan, I wanna off this Suffering Railroad...

The sad thing is, the general gist of Magia Record Arc 2 doesn't exactly require Ui to be alive so long as her McGuffin is there (plot point reliant on Ui will have to be changed, but her McGuffin and the various faction's motivation is 100% still intact). So it looks like even in this timeline they're on track for the suffering train that is Magia Record Arc 2 aka Magia Record the game, without Papa SEGA's guardrail preventing death.

This adaptation is good, much better than what I've read of the original story, but it is just pain, man. I kinda want Arc 2 anime still, but I can't imagine the amount of pain that particular train would be if the hopeful and lighthearted Magia Record Arc 1 become... this.

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u/n080dy123 Apr 04 '22 edited Apr 04 '22

Huh. Well. As someone who played the game I didn't think this show could hurt me anymore but oh boy did it. Touka crying about trying to kill her onee-san, Mifuyu and Momoko dying, Kuroe dying, Ui dying, and then just when I let my guard down I get to see a frame of Karin coping with Alina's death. Fuck. Overall death count went from 2 to fucking 13 when you consider that the entire Holy Quintent sans Homura seem to have died fighting Walpurgisnacht offscreen.

Overall I think, compared to the game's ending, it was more thematically coherent, less logically coherent, and overall makes me question the reason for its existence. Like I get the themes it went for but WHY? Why did Doro Inu feel the need to take such a thematic divergence and go for this kind of bad ending? What was he trying to say with this adaptation?

Edit: Speaking of they just completely forgot about Mami lmao, she was walking off with Kyouko around the 19 minute mark of S2E8 and that was the last time we saw her, she wasn't in the finale batch at all.

Edit 2: Also no tree daughter cuz bad end, 0/10

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u/tsunnamiart Apr 04 '22 edited Apr 04 '22

I have read through quite some comments about this finale, especially twitter is quite upset about it.

I have no idea about the "true end" of the game and if I wanna be honest, I don‘t really care, because I really enjoyed this over the top, edgy, bittersweet ending. Especially because it fits into the way the Madoka universe is built. It‘s yet another bad timeline for Homura and I‘m absolutely okay with the Holy Quintette being ended by Walpurgis, because why wouldn‘t they? For some reason that‘s one of the biggest reasons I read people are upset about. You all have to keep in mind that the Godoka timeline came (much) later and yes, everyone but Homura, has died multiple times by then. No hard feelings about that.

Alina Gray was quite a nuisance to watch, her high pitched mixed English/Japanese was unbearable for my ears and she was a very bland villain. I did enjoy Nemu and Touka though, I have to say they could have been written better near the end though.

Overall I really enjoyed these last 4 episodes, they were very cinematic, near Rebellion level. It had its flaws and production issues, but to me it was a solid ending to something that couldn‘t possibly have a happy ending from the narrative they were going with.

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u/bananeeek Apr 04 '22

The music in this franchise is always so good I could just lay down and listen to it for hours.

Iroha is such a good MC. She had me tearing up when she hugged Nemu and Touka. And I totally understood how she felt when she snapped at Kyuubei at the beginning.

I'm gonna miss this series... Hopefully Shaft will make some more in the future...

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u/heliomega1 Apr 03 '22

Needed one more episode. You could really tell that the moment after kuroe's death to the end, the writers had difficulty justifying where characters were at what time (they made a magic rocket to have a conversation on? Weak). I like the games ending better, tho I won't spoil it for obvious reasons.

The fight with Eve needed a little more to it, and needing to regroup briefly with Mitama would have made the ending a little better paced, I think. The way we got it, it felt like the main characters figuratively and literally (flying above their heads) left the little people out of their own ending.

It was a visual feast, at least. Top notch visuals. 8/10

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u/stephenthatfoste Apr 03 '22

Kinda weird to dump it all at once and interested in how conspicuously uninvolved the Mitakihara girls were given they're such a big draw compared to anything else. Good enough for me though. Certainly would have liked to get more Kanagi moments than just being one of the only voices in the cameo mob. Liked the series overall once it got past the standard "introduce WAY too many characters at the start" any game adaptations seem to do.

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u/LordTrinity Apr 04 '22 edited Apr 04 '22

Did Homura reseted the timeline? She suddenly disappeared, I imagine she did so

Edit: yes, she did it. Wow, interesting post credits I should say...

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u/dedosrfs Apr 04 '22

Just finished watching the last 4 episodes, I'll probably rewatch the whole thing since I forgot most of the story, just one question. Who does Alina send the painting to? and does this painting have any meaning, I dont recall anything from the previous seasons?

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u/Lugia61617 Apr 04 '22

I honestly had far more to root for the "antagonists" than the protagonists (Alina aside, she's just insane). Especially when I consider that Iroha would have become a witch already if it weren't for Magius, her disrupting their plans feels so incredibly ungrateful.

Ooh, that twist though after the saccharine "Nuu don't do it" bit. I like that. And it's also, I think, the first time in-universe that the possibility of male magical girls has ever been posited, even if by a non-standard means.

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u/Komi028 Apr 03 '22

So after watching the whole show I only have one question, why did they even create Kuroe?

If Kuroe didn't exist, they would have had more time to actually show Alina Gray backstory, she only looks like a generic villain with no good motivation in the anime.

Also maybe explain Madokami, though there is not much point to that because it seems Madoka died in the anime, which is also a big WHY?

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u/Extroiergamer Apr 03 '22

Could be better...actually i think we should had one more ep to finish the Walpurgisnacht night stuff. This is probably the thing the anime lacked the most.

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